Very similar to the beef stew, but for a beef vegetable soup. This was based on my mom's recipe for her beef veggie soup, but I've changed it up quite a bit over the years and now this is one of our staples.
-1 lb beef stew meat chopped into smaller bite size hunks
-one large onion, chopped
-1/2 to 1 lb of small red potatoes or fingerling potatoes, chopped into hunks -I really like some baby yukon gold potatoes I've been getting, they are nice and buttery without having anything on them.
-one to two large cans of beef broth (or homemade broth) depending on the size of your crock pot and how much you are wanting to make
-herbs for flavor - Again, I use sea salt, pepper, parsley, a bit of thyme and tarragon, but whatever herbs you enjoy with beef will work fine. I generally use those herbs plus a packet of onion soup mix to enhance the flavor. If I'm making a large pot, I'll use two packets.
-Veggies, whatever you choose...carrots, peas, cabbage, parsnips, all work nicely. I usually buy a good size bag of frozen mixed veg if I don't have anything fresh around and it works perfect.
Again, you can either brown your meat and onions on the stove or just put them in the crock pot along with the potatoes, broth, herbs and soup mix if you are using it.
If you are doing frozen mixed veg, don't add that yet, but if you are using fresh veggies, chop and add those now. Cook on high for 6 to 8 hours, until the meat and potatoes are done. Add the frozen veg after about 6 hours or so, you just want to add it early enough so it can cook for a bit and be nice and hot, but not turn to mush.
That's it, just serve with a nice hot crusty bread or roll and heaven!
You can do this on the stove too, just do it all in one big soup pot and brown the meat and onions in a bit of butter, add the herbs and soup mix, stir in the broth and potatoes and simmer for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours until the meat and potatoes are tender, then stir in the frozen veg and heat through.
Either way, it does well as leftovers and is a snap to heat up in the microwave a bowl at at time. I love to make this and take it to work for lunch the next day.